THE DOCTRINE OF SCRIPTURE: AN INTRODUCTION, by Mark D. Thompson

A Brief Book Summary from Books At a Glance

by Steve West

 

Table of Contents

Introduction: How Do We Give an Account of the Doctrine of Scripture?
1 Jesus and Scripture: The Christian Starting Point for Understanding Revelation and the Bible
2 The Speaking God
3 From the Speech of God to “The Word of God Written”
4 The Character of Scripture (Part 1): Clarity and Truthfulness
5 The Character of Scripture (Part 2): Sufficiency and Efficacy
6 Reading the Bible as a Follower of Jesus

 

Summary

 

Introduction: How Do We Give an Account of the Doctrine of Scripture?

The Bible has always had a vital place in the life of the church and individual believers, and throughout history Christians have been known as people of the Book. No other book is the more widely discussed or written about; it is treasured, reviled, loved, and hated. “The Christian doctrine of Scripture arises from the gospel of Jesus Christ.” For Jesus Christ and the apostles, Scripture was authoritative, and it provided the context for understanding God and the gospel. Jesus’s self-identity was drawn from the Old Testament. There is no distinction between the authority of Jesus and the authority of Scripture: the two go together. In order to take the person of the Word incarnate seriously, we need to take his words seriously. Since God breathed out his word, if we ignore Scripture we ignore the Spirit.

As Christians, our doctrine of Scripture should start with Christ, paying careful attention to his person, words, and specific teaching about Scripture. It is true that we discover Jesus’s attitude towards Scripture only in the pages of Scripture, but whenever we appeal to an ultimate authority there is an unavoidable level of circularity. God’s word was written over centuries by numerous authors, but there is an incredible unity and coherence in the whole. The New Testament reveals how Christ is the fulfillment of the Old, and there is continuity between the Testaments. There is perfect complementarity between the biblical books, and they demonstrate a deep unity but with a great diversity of emphases and perspectives.

Scripture is self-authenticating as the testimony of the Spirit, and an appeal to Scripture is an appeal to the authority of God himself. In formulating a systematic doctrine of Scripture, biblical theology is an indispensable guide for helping us track the context and progress of God’s revelation about his word. Our doctrine of Scripture is ultimately grounded in the triune God; it has a Christocentric character. God’s self-revelation flows from his relational nature, the same nature that explains creation and redemption. It is the word of God and is sufficient for God’s purposes in revealing himself to us. Theology and apologetics are both important, but in a systematic theological approach to the doctrine of Scripture, we do not try to answer every apologetic question.

 

Chapter 1: Jesus and Scripture

God is most clearly known and revealed in the person of his incarnate Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the Son through whom the Father primarily relates to us, and it is in him that we have the embodied fullness of the Father’s revelation. Jesus’s attitude towards the Scriptures is the attitude that we must have as well—we must, therefore, pay careful attention to how Jesus stands at the center of our doctrine of Scripture. In the Gospels, we find that Jesus appealed to Scripture as the final authority in disputes and in resisting temptations. Unlike Adam and Israel, Jesus resisted temptation by obeying God’s word. When Jesus explained his own identity and the significance of his ministry, he appealed to Scripture; he knew he was fulfilling God’s word. Jesus himself saw that it was necessary for him to experience certain things—including the cross—in order for Scripture to find fulfillment.

Jesus explicitly identified Scripture as the word of God; if Scripture said something, it was to be taken as the voice of God himself. Christ did not see himself as contradicting God’s word but rather fulfilling it and bringing out its true meaning. “The link between Jesus the Word of God and Scripture as the word of God is unbreakable and mutually illuminating.” In the teaching of Jesus, it was clear that he held to a “double agency” of the authorship of Scripture. David, Moses, and others wrote Scripture, but God was the primary author who filled them with the Spirit so that they wrote precisely the words God wanted. Jesus’s appeal to Scripture always assumed that it was intelligible and that its meaning was clear. Those with a humble heart and a desire to know the truth can read Scripture and understand its meaning. Those with hard hearts do not receive the word, and believers only grasp it through the work of the Holy Spirit. We need faith, the clear text of God’s revelation, and the Spirit.

Jesus always maintained the absolute truthfulness of Scripture, and this was grounded in the character of the Father, the one whose word it was. Every detail of Scripture was accepted as reliable, accurate, and true by the Lord. It was also taken as sufficient for God’s purposes. Although Scripture does not talk about everything, Jesus took it as enough for us to know God, recognize our Savior, understand his work, trust him completely for salvation, and live a holy life in this world. Jesus’s words were powerful and effective, and he held to the unconquerable power of God’s written word which could not be broken.

When Jesus ascended to the Father’s right hand, the Spirit was poured out to guide the disciples into all truth. The apostles were authorized to speak authoritatively in Jesus’s name, so that the words of the apostles had all of the authority of the words of Christ. Given the nature of Scripture according to Jesus, people are responsible to respond to it accordingly. We must not merely pay lip-service to the doctrine of Scripture; we must live our lives on the foundation of Jesus’s words, putting them into practice and obeying them. We accept the words of Jesus because we recognize the authority and lordship of Christ. . . .

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